It was a mixture of pure grit and good fortune which saw Town win 1-0 at St Andrew’s in McCarthy’s first game in charge. The Blues defended manfully following DJ Campbell’s eighth minute opener, but also had Nikola Zigic to thank for missing two sitters.

Two heavy away thrashings – 5-0 at Crystal Palace and 6-0 at Leicester – then came either side of a vital 2-1 home win against Burnley, Campbell scoring an 87th minute winner.

Come the start of the new year, Town had won seven of their 12 games under McCarthy to climb to 19th and eight points clear of the drop zone.

Despite that, the relegation fight – one of the most keenly contested in recent memory – went right to the wire.

Every week Town won so, it seemed, did their rivals. In the end they finished 14th with 60 points. Peterborough went down a with record points tally of 54, along with Wolves and Bristol City. Just eight points ended up separating 10th to 22nd.

Fixtures comparison

McCarthy until New Year in 2012:

Now Paul Lambert takes over as Ipswich boss with the Blues bottom once again. Picture: ROSS HALLS

W 1-0 Birmingham (a)

L 5-0 Crystal Palace (a)

W 2-1 Burnley (h)

L 6-0 Leicester (a)

D 1-1 Peterborough (h)

W 3-1 Nottm Forest (h)

W 2-1 Bolton (a)

Mick McCarthy won his first game as Ipswich manager at Birmingham. Picture: PAGEPIX

W 3-0 Millwall (h)

L 2-0 Leeds (a)

D 1-1 Bristol City (h)

W 2-1 Charlton (a)

W 2-0 Wolves (a)

Lambert until New Year in 2018:

Preston (h)

Reading (a)

West Brom (h)

Bristol City (h)

Nottm Forest (a)

Stoke (a)

Wigan (h)

Sheffield Utd (h)

QPR (a)

Middlesbrough (a)

Recruitment

Back in 2012, the ‘emergency’ loan window was still available to Championship managers.

After signing left-back Kelly Youga on a free transfer (he never played), McCarthy brought in right-back Bradley Orr from Blackburn, as well as striker Tyrone Barnett from relegation rivals Peterborough.

DJ Campbell scored the goals to move Ipswich away from the bottom of the table in 2012/13. Picture: PAGEPIX

That option is not available to Lambert following 2016’s rule changes. If he wants to strengthen his squad before January it will have to be free agents.

Strikers Darren Bent and Gabby Agbonlahor are both without clubs and both played under Lambert at Aston Villa. Bent did say recently that he would love to finish his career at Town, the club where it all started for him, but the fact he fell out with Lambert at Villa Park makes that move highly unlikely.

McCarthy then signed David McGoldrick, Richard Stearman, Anthony Wordsworth and Patrick Kisnorbo in January, adding Reece Brown and Jay Tabb to the squad later in the campaign.